There's no vendetta, I just thought your comment was dumb. I find many comments dumb and I usually keep it to myself, but your rudeness made me feel justified in saying it aloud.

As for why I find this comment dumb:

1) Stating the obvious: Do you think there is a person in the world that doesn't understand the concept of using laughter as a way of dealing with grief?

2) Good taste: Would you chuckle at jokes about eating the corpse of your dead friend? Probably not.

3) A very poor point followed up by an unearned coup de grace. If you want to smack someone down at the end of your comment, you have to earn it.

4) Contributing personal factors: Beyond this, I've encountered some painful deaths over the past couple of years, which probably amplifies my annoyance factor when it comes to flippant, rude comments like the one in question.

Why no intellectual debate? Because it didn't seem worth it. But you've asked, and I've explained it now.

I can't remember what I said to you about Milton Friedman, so send me the link if you want elaboration.

I think you are an OK guy, and definitely no moron, but you do have this way of stating the obvious in a really self-righteous tone that annoys the crap out of me.

Just being honest.


In reply to this comment by xxovercastxx:
I wish I had left the "douchbag" comment off and I actually just sent Roachmojo an apology for that line. I'm not surprised to get some flak for it.

However, your ranting a couple weeks ago over my comment about the Friedman video seemed very unlike you. I'd have expected intelligent debate from you, not that.

I was starting to wonder if I had done something that offended you.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
I've always been hostile to lame comments.

I like it when musicians use their foot switches.

Amplified acoustic guitars are a difficult thing to work with, given their tendency to uncontrollably feedback.

EDWARD R. MURROW

RTNDA Convention
Chicago
October 15, 1958

This just might do nobody any good. At the end of this discourse a few people may accuse this reporter of fouling his own comfortable nest, and your organization may be accused of having given hospitality to heretical and even dangerous thoughts. But the elaborate structure of networks, advertising agencies and sponsors will not be shaken or altered. It is my desire, if not my duty, to try to talk to you journeymen with some candor about what is happening to radio and television.

I have no technical advice or counsel to offer those of you who labor in this vineyard that produces words and pictures. You will forgive me for not telling you that instruments with which you work are miraculous, that your responsibility is unprecedented or that your aspirations are frequently frustrated. It is not necessary to remind you that the fact that your voice is amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of the country to the other does not confer upon you greater wisdom or understanding than you possessed when your voice reached only from one end of the bar to the other. All of these things you know.

You should also know at the outset that, in the manner of witnesses before Congressional committees, I appear here voluntarily-by invitation-that I am an employee of the Columbia Broadcasting System, that I am neither an officer nor a director of that corporation and that these remarks are of a "do-it-yourself" nature. If what I have to say is responsible, then I alone am responsible for the saying of it. Seeking neither approbation from my employers, nor new sponsors, nor acclaim from the critics of radio and television, I cannot well be disappointed. Believing that potentially the commercial system of broadcasting as practiced in this country is the best and freest yet devised, I have decided to express my concern about what I believe to be happening to radio and television. These instruments have been good to me beyond my due. There exists in mind no reasonable grounds for personal complaint. I have no feud, either with my employers, any sponsors, or with the professional critics of radio and television. But I am seized with an abiding fear regarding what these two instruments are doing to our society, our culture and our heritage.

Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.

For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive. I mean the word survive literally. If there were to be a competition in indifference, or perhaps in insulation from reality, then Nero and his fiddle, Chamberlain and his umbrella, could not find a place on an early afternoon sustaining show. If Hollywood were to run out of Indians, the program schedules would be mangled beyond all recognition. Then some courageous soul with a small budget might be able to do a documentary telling what, in fact, we have done--and are still doing--to the Indians in this country. But that would be unpleasant. And we must at all costs shield the sensitive citizens from anything that is unpleasant.

I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and more mature than most of our industry's program planners believe. Their fear of controversy is not warranted by the evidence. I have reason to know, as do many of you, that when the evidence on a controversial subject is fairly and calmly presented, the public recognizes it for what it is--an effort to illuminate rather than to agitate.

Several years ago, when we undertook to do a program on Egypt and Israel, well-meaning, experienced and intelligent friends shook their heads and said, "This you cannot do--you will be handed your head. It is an emotion-packed controversy, and there is no room for reason in it." We did the program. Zionists, anti-Zionists, the friends of the Middle East, Egyptian and Israeli officials said, with a faint tone of surprise, "It was a fair count. The information was there. We have no complaints."

Our experience was similar with two half-hour programs dealing with cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Both the medical profession and the tobacco industry cooperated in a rather wary fashion. But in the end of the day they were both reasonably content. The subject of radioactive fall-out and the banning of nuclear tests was, and is, highly controversial. But according to what little evidence there is, viewers were prepared to listen to both sides with reason and restraint. This is not said to claim any special or unusual competence in the presentation of controversial subjects, but rather to indicate that timidity in these areas is not warranted by the evidence.

Recently, network spokesmen have been disposed to complain that the professional critics of television have been "rather beastly." There have been hints that somehow competition for the advertising dollar has caused the critics of print to gang up on television and radio. This reporter has no desire to defend the critics. They have space in which to do that on their own behalf. But it remains a fact that the newspapers and magazines are the only instruments of mass communication which remain free from sustained and regular critical comment. If the network spokesmen are so anguished about what appears in print, let them come forth and engage in a little sustained and regular comment regarding newspapers and magazines. It is an ancient and sad fact that most people in network television, and radio, have an exaggerated regard for what appears in print. And there have been cases where executives have refused to make even private comment or on a program for which they were responsible until they heard'd the reviews in print. This is hardly an exhibition confidence.

The oldest excuse of the networks for their timidity is their youth. Their spokesmen say, "We are young; we have not developed the traditions nor acquired the experience of the older media." If they but knew it, they are building those traditions, creating those precedents everyday. Each time they yield to a voice from Washington or any political pressure, each time they eliminate something that might offend some section of the community, they are creating their own body of precedent and tradition. They are, in fact, not content to be "half safe."

Nowhere is this better illustrated than by the fact that the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission publicly prods broadcasters to engage in their legal right to editorialize. Of course, to undertake an editorial policy, overt and clearly labeled, and obviously unsponsored, requires a station or a network to be responsible. Most stations today probably do not have the manpower to assume this responsibility, but the manpower could be recruited. Editorials would not be profitable; if they had a cutting edge, they might even offend. It is much easier, much less troublesome, to use the money-making machine of television and radio merely as a conduit through which to channel anything that is not libelous, obscene or defamatory. In that way one has the illusion of power without responsibility.

So far as radio--that most satisfying and rewarding instrument--is concerned, the diagnosis of its difficulties is rather easy. And obviously I speak only of news and information. In order to progress, it need only go backward. To the time when singing commercials were not allowed on news reports, when there was no middle commercial in a 15-minute news report, when radio was rather proud, alert and fast. I recently asked a network official, "Why this great rash of five-minute news reports (including three commercials) on weekends?" He replied, "Because that seems to be the only thing we can sell."

In this kind of complex and confusing world, you can't tell very much about the why of the news in broadcasts where only three minutes is available for news. The only man who could do that was Elmer Davis, and his kind aren't about any more. If radio news is to be regarded as a commodity, only acceptable when saleable, then I don't care what you call it--I say it isn't news.

My memory also goes back to the time when the fear of a slight reduction in business did not result in an immediate cutback in bodies in the news and public affairs department, at a time when network profits had just reached an all-time high. We would all agree, I think, that whether on a station or a network, the stapling machine is a poor substitute for a newsroom typewriter.

One of the minor tragedies of television news and information is that the networks will not even defend their vital interests. When my employer, CBS, through a combination of enterprise and good luck, did an interview with Nikita Khrushchev, the President uttered a few ill-chosen, uninformed words on the subject, and the network practically apologized. This produced a rarity. Many newspapers defended the CBS right to produce the program and commended it for initiative. But the other networks remained silent.

Likewise, when John Foster Dulles, by personal decree, banned American journalists from going to Communist China, and subsequently offered contradictory explanations, for his fiat the networks entered only a mild protest. Then they apparently forgot the unpleasantness. Can it be that this national industry is content to serve the public interest only with the trickle of news that comes out of Hong Kong, to leave its viewers in ignorance of the cataclysmic changes that are occurring in a nation of six hundred million people? I have no illusions about the difficulties reporting from a dictatorship, but our British and French allies have been better served--in their public interest--with some very useful information from their reporters in Communist China.

One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles. The top management of the networks with a few notable exceptions, has been trained in advertising, research, sales or show business. But by the nature of the coporate structure, they also make the final and crucial decisions having to do with news and public affairs. Frequently they have neither the time nor the competence to do this. It is not easy for the same small group of men to decide whether to buy a new station for millions of dollars, build a new building, alter the rate card, buy a new Western, sell a soap opera, decide what defensive line to take in connection with the latest Congressional inquiry, how much money to spend on promoting a new program, what additions or deletions should be made in the existing covey or clutch of vice-presidents, and at the same time-- frequently on the same long day--to give mature, thoughtful consideration to the manifold problems that confront those who are charged with the responsibility for news and public affairs.

Sometimes there is a clash between the public interest and the corporate interest. A telephone call or a letter from the proper quarter in Washington is treated rather more seriously than a communication from an irate but not politically potent viewer. It is tempting enough to give away a little air time for frequently irresponsible and unwarranted utterances in an effort to temper the wind of criticism.

Upon occasion, economics and editorial judgment are in conflict. And there is no law which says that dollars will be defeated by duty. Not so long ago the President of the United States delivered a television address to the nation. He was discoursing on the possibility or probability of war between this nation and the Soviet Union and Communist China--a reasonably compelling subject. Two networks CBS and NBC, delayed that broadcast for an hour and fifteen minutes. If this decision was dictated by anything other than financial reasons, the networks didn't deign to explain those reasons. That hour-and-fifteen-minute delay, by the way, is about twice the time required for an ICBM to travel from the Soviet Union to major targets in the United States. It is difficult to believe that this decision was made by men who love, respect and understand news.

So far, I have been dealing largely with the deficit side of the ledger, and the items could be expanded. But I have said, and I believe, that potentially we have in this country a free enterprise system of radio and television which is superior to any other. But to achieve its promise, it must be both free and enterprising. There is no suggestion here that networks or individual stations should operate as philanthropies. But I can find nothing in the Bill of Rights or the Communications Act which says that they must increase their net profits each year, lest the Republic collapse. I do not suggest that news and information should be subsidized by foundations or private subscriptions. I am aware that the networks have expended, and are expending, very considerable sums of money on public affairs programs from which they cannot hope to receive any financial reward. I have had the privilege at CBS of presiding over a considerable number of such programs. I testify, and am able to stand here and say, that I have never had a program turned down by my superiors because of the money it would cost.

But we all know that you cannot reach the potential maximum audience in marginal time with a sustaining program. This is so because so many stations on the network--any network--will decline to carry it. Every licensee who applies for a grant to operate in the public interest, convenience and necessity makes certain promises as to what he will do in terms of program content. Many recipients of licenses have, in blunt language, welshed on those promises. The money-making machine somehow blunts their memories. The only remedy for this is closer inspection and punitive action by the F.C.C. But in the view of many this would come perilously close to supervision of program content by a federal agency.

So it seems that we cannot rely on philanthropic support or foundation subsidies; we cannot follow the "sustaining route"--the networks cannot pay all the freight--and the F.C.C. cannot or will not discipline those who abuse the facilities that belong to the public. What, then, is the answer? Do we merely stay in our comfortable nests, concluding that the obligation of these instruments has been discharged when we work at the job of informing the public for a minimum of time? Or do we believe that the preservation of the Republic is a seven-day-a-week job, demanding more awareness, better skills and more perseverance than we have yet contemplated.

I am frightened by the imbalance, the constant striving to reach the largest possible audience for everything; by the absence of a sustained study of the state of the nation. Heywood Broun once said, "No body politic is healthy until it begins to itch." I would like television to produce some itching pills rather than this endless outpouring of tranquilizers. It can be done. Maybe it won't be, but it could. Let us not shoot the wrong piano player. Do not be deluded into believing that the titular heads of the networks control what appears on their networks. They all have better taste. All are responsible to stockholders, and in my experience all are honorable men. But they must schedule what they can sell in the public market.

And this brings us to the nub of the question. In one sense it rather revolves around the phrase heard frequently along Madison Avenue: The Corporate Image. I am not precisely sure what this phrase means, but I would imagine that it reflects a desire on the part of the corporations who pay the advertising bills to have the public image, or believe that they are not merely bodies with no souls, panting in pursuit of elusive dollars. They would like us to believe that they can distinguish between the public good and the private or corporate gain. So the question is this: Are the big corporations who pay the freight for radio and television programs wise to use that time exclusively for the sale of goods and services? Is it in their own interest and that of the stockholders so to do? The sponsor of an hour's television program is not buying merely the six minutes devoted to commercial message. He is determining, within broad limits, the sum total of the impact of the entire hour. If he always, invariably, reaches for the largest possible audience, then this process of insulation, of escape from reality, will continue to be massively financed, and its apologist will continue to make winsome speeches about giving the public what it wants, or "letting the public decide."

I refuse to believe that the presidents and chairmen of the boards of these big corporations want their corporate image to consist exclusively of a solemn voice in an echo chamber, or a pretty girl opening the door of a refrigerator, or a horse that talks. They want something better, and on occasion some of them have demonstrated it. But most of the men whose legal and moral responsibility it is to spend the stockholders' money for advertising are removed from the realities of the mass media by five, six, or a dozen contraceptive layers of vice-presidents, public relations counsel and advertising agencies. Their business is to sell goods, and the competition is pretty tough.

But this nation is now in competition with malignant forces of evil who are using every instrument at their command to empty the minds of their subjects and fill those minds with slogans, determination and faith in the future. If we go on as we are, we are protecting the mind of the American public from any real contact with the menacing world that squeezes in upon us. We are engaged in a great experiment to discover whether a free public opinion can devise and direct methods of managing the affairs of the nation. We may fail. But we are handicapping ourselves needlessly.

Let us have a little competition. Not only in selling soap, cigarettes and automobiles, but in informing a troubled, apprehensive but receptive public. Why should not each of the 20 or 30 big corporations which dominate radio and television decide that they will give up one or two of their regularly scheduled programs each year, turn the time over to the networks and say in effect: "This is a tiny tithe, just a little bit of our profits. On this particular night we aren't going to try to sell cigarettes or automobiles; this is merely a gesture to indicate our belief in the importance of ideas." The networks should, and I think would, pay for the cost of producing the program. The advertiser, the sponsor, would get name credit but would have nothing to do with the content of the program. Would this blemish the corporate image? Would the stockholders object? I think not. For if the premise upon which our pluralistic society rests, which as I understand it is that if the people are given sufficient undiluted information, they will then somehow, even after long, sober second thoughts, reach the right decision--if that premise is wrong, then not only the corporate image but the corporations are done for.

There used to be an old phrase in this country, employed when someone talked too much. It was: "Go hire a hall." Under this proposal the sponsor would have hired the hall; he has bought the time; the local station operator, no matter how indifferent, is going to carry the program-he has to. Then it's up to the networks to fill the hall. I am not here talking about editorializing but about straightaway exposition as direct, unadorned and impartial as falliable human beings can make it. Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information. Let us dream to the extent of saying that on a given Sunday night the time normally occupied by Ed Sullivan is given over to a clinical survey of the state of American education, and a week or two later the time normally used by Steve Allen is devoted to a thoroughgoing study of American policy in the Middle East. Would the corporate image of their respective sponsors be damaged? Would the stockholders rise up in their wrath and complain? Would anything happen other than that a few million people would have received a little illumination on subjects that may well determine the future of this country, and therefore the future of the corporations? This method would also provide real competition between the networks as to which could outdo the others in the palatable presentation of information. It would provide an outlet for the young men of skill, and there are some even of dedication, who would like to do something other than devise methods of insulating while selling.

There may be other and simpler methods of utilizing these instruments of radio and television in the interests of a free society. But I know of none that could be so easily accomplished inside the framework of the existing commercial system. I don't know how you would measure the success or failure of a given program. And it would be hard to prove the magnitude of the benefit accruing to the corporation which gave up one night of a variety or quiz show in order that the network might marshal its skills to do a thorough-going job on the present status of NATO, or plans for controlling nuclear tests. But I would reckon that the president, and indeed the majority of shareholders of the corporation who sponsored such a venture, would feel just a little bit better about the corporation and the country.

It may be that the present system, with no modifications and no experiments, can survive. Perhaps the money-making machine has some kind of built-in perpetual motion, but I do not think so. To a very considerable extent the media of mass communications in a given country reflect the political, economic and social climate in which they flourish. That is the reason ours differ from the British and French, or the Russian and Chinese. We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.

I do not advocate that we turn television into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan about the state of our culture and our defense. But I would just like to see it reflect occasionally the hard, unyielding realities of the world in which we live. I would like to see it done inside the existing framework, and I would like to see the doing of it redound to the credit of those who finance and program it. Measure the results by Nielsen, Trendex or Silex-it doesn't matter. The main thing is to try. The responsibility can be easily placed, in spite of all the mouthings about giving the public what it wants. It rests on big business, and on big television, and it rests at the top. Responsibility is not something that can be assigned or delegated. And it promises its own reward: good business and good television.

Perhaps no one will do anything about it. I have ventured to outline it against a background of criticism that may have been too harsh only because I could think of nothing better. Someone once said--I think it was Max Eastman--that "that publisher serves his advertiser best who best serves his readers." I cannot believe that radio and television, or the corporation that finance the programs, are serving well or truly their viewers or listeners, or themselves.

I began by saying that our history will be what we make it. If we go on as we are, then history will take its revenge, and retribution will not limp in catching up with us.

We are to a large extent an imitative society. If one or two or three corporations would undertake to devote just a small traction of their advertising appropriation along the lines that I have suggested, the procedure would grow by contagion; the economic burden would be bearable, and there might ensue a most exciting adventure--exposure to ideas and the bringing of reality into the homes of the nation.

To those who say people wouldn't look; they wouldn't be interested; they're too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter's opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost.

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.

Stonewall Jackson, who knew something about the use of weapons, is reported to have said, "When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.

this girl whines and can't sing very well....shrieks rather....a whine is usually not amplified artificially-

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Wow, that would be tough. Private poos would be rare than hen's teeth.>> ^spoco2:
Very true... there is no privacy... and, seeing as my family (with our 4 kids under 7) is temporarily in a house with one toilet... it's amplified.

Very true... there is no privacy... and, seeing as my family (with our 4 kids under 7) is temporarily in a house with one toilet... it's amplified.

Unfortunately, we are not going to resolve the "what is porn?" issue. This article at findlaw ought to be enough to convince even the most perseverant among us that to come to a conclusion about what is or isn't porn is an exercise in extreme futility. While it might be wonderful to think that everyone in the world ought to adopt a laissez les bon temps rouler attitude, that is simply not going to happen.

The argument of advertisers aside, there are other governing factors in this discussion. First, as Dag mentioned, exploitation. It doesn't take very much googling to find out that the drug abuse and suicide rates among porn workers are staggering. There are people literally selling their souls to be involved in this industry. By buying the product and/or propagating it through our various media, we turn a blind eye to the destruction of real people. If the objectification of women in our society is a problem (and many here on the Sift appear to think it is), then porn amplifies that problem to manifold degrees. And Dag has it right, we don't know who is being exploited and who isn't. Why even give the illusion that we support that kind of degradation?

Second,is the impact of porn upon some of the members of this site. Statistically speaking the probability is certain that there are some of our members who struggle with addiction to pornography to one degree or another. Like alcoholism, there are certain people who cannot have just one. It ought to be patently obvious that this is an area in which we have an opportunity to take care of one another rather than to invite each other into further ruin. You don't have to go much farther than the end of your block to find a family that has been negatively impacted or even torn apart by porn.

Allow me to put it this way: If a friend comes to my house and I know he's an alcoholic, I don't serve him booze and I don't break it out in front of him. Why would I hurt someone like that? While I realize that it is ultimately his responsibility whether he drinks or not, I also realize that there are those who have lost the choice to drink and to set a drink in front of them might very well be their demise. So, I give up my rights to alcohol to help the person who needs it. Same with porn. While I might have a right to post it, I also have a right to not post it. What helps more people out?

For those two reasons, among others, I have enjoyed being a part of Videosift and, with a clear conscious, recommending this site to others.

^ What he said.

You want a sportbike to be unstable enough to turn easily, but juuuust stable enough to avoid this. Steering dampers can help, but it can still shake. Most of the time, it starts as a little head wobble, the rider amplifies it by chopping the throttle and trying to wrestle the bars, and then the tankslapper takes over from there...

what was that 375?

Judging by his wrestling shoes, and the grip he was taking he dead lifting noob.

You hold one over hand grip and one underhand grip, and you lift with your legs. He should have started from a squat position. The reason these power lifters get so pumped is to tap into their cortisol stores thus amplifying their potential lift weight to 80% of their maximum power.

http://stronglifts.com/how-to-deadlift-with-proper-technique/

Good technique below:



Good Technique can lead to this if you so like: He has that thing stuck in his nose to stop him from bleeding. When I was lifting they called it a bleeder. It's caused by the rise in blood pressure common to weightlifters who hold their breath when lifting. That is why you exhale when the lift is executed. Stimulants can cause the noise bleeds too.

He met Leo Fender the guitar and amplifier Guru and Leo asked Dale to play his newly creation, the Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar. The minute Dale picked up the guitar, Leo Fender broke into uncontrolled laughter and disbelief, he was watching Dale play a right handed guitar upside down and backwards, Dale was playing a right handed guitar left handed and changing the chords in his head then transposing the chords to his hands to create a sound never heard before.

Leo Fender gave the Fender Stratocaster along with a Fender Amp to Dale and told him to beat it to death and tell him what he thought of it. Dale took the guitar and started to beat it to death, and he blew up Leo Fender's amp and blew out the speaker. Dale proceeded to blow up forty nine amps and speakers; they would actually catch on fire.

If only the public had access to some sort of common information depository that could mitigate the obscurity of interesting movies with feeble marketing budgets.

One might set up some form of hype-amplifier in the service of culture.

>> ^Payback:
I was kinda noticing how, to me anyway, the shades actually look like gradients (each panel, not the whole thing) without the pencil, darker on the left side than the other.


That's because of the mach band illusion (pointed out in that link posted by berticus). The mach band illusion can be seen with any slight step change. The cause is well worked out and has to do with the fact that the retina primarily encodes contrast instead of luminance. What happens is that the edges are amplified making the adjacent side appear brighter/darker accordingly. As you move away from the edge, you perceive the appropriate brightness. That creates the gradient effect you pointed out.

Parental discrestion is advised when the D.O.C. gets candid

To move like a one-armed bandit

Arrange the tempo when I go solo

The beat and the cut to a rhyme, and it's oh so

Raw, cause you want to jam, then you go "Damn he's good"

And you're right cause I am

And I'm strong, strong enough to reach them

They said they wanna learn, so I'm a teach them

Amplified by a microphone, my point it known

So yo, leave the pad at home

I'm down with the sound so much that I can feel it

If there's a deal to be dealt, then I'll deal it

I'm on a roll, that's word to the father

Chumps want to break, but I tell 'em I don't bother

Char the memory of all who saw the

Last of the concerned, I burn like lava

So in sum you break, you broke it

And I'm smiling, but not joking

Secrets are told, fold but never did

With the knowledge as strong as a whirlwind pyramid



It was mandatory, a righteous editorial

Cause my sport is like part of a memorial

Knowing the whole I was told through a pole

I have the juice to make vinyl gold

Servent at your service, never nervous

Why am I claiming The Great? Cause I deserve this

Title is vital, I receive directly

So I don't have to deal with suckers trying to check

T-R to the A-Y, do they have to be warned? Just try

And I'll start crushing without discussion

Checking the crowd with the rhymes I'm busting

Cool, a quality I have to mention

Gaining with the dope comprehension

I move the corwd, so I make it my bid

Pop the lid, yeah, see a whirlwind pyramid



Hold it, you're a step off the pace, so catch up

And if you're sitting get your black ass up

Dance to the rhythm, let it move your pants

And if you don't dance I assume you can't

And as the crowd, steadily expanding

So move, cause I don't want to see you standing

You're in the way, so hey you gotta step

Left right, I don't give a damn, just jet

As you leave the party in the light you can see body

Everybody, but you're a toasting Maseratti

Cause you don't want to handle the scandal

Physical abuse cause you're as drunk as Tony Randall

And it's a gamble, I mean I've heard you ramble

On and on but you get worn like a sandal

They said "Get raw" and I did then I slid to the back

And hid behind a whirlwind pyramid

I really don't know what to think here.

On the one had I don't think governmental policy shouldn't be playing the role of amplifying more worthy arts because ultimately that's subjective, even though it's clear at least to me for very many objective reasons that say classical music has much more value than most modern day pop nowadays.

On the other hand I'd hate to see popular culture digress into the void of watching cars drive around endlessly in a circle, obsessing about celebrities and being enamoured by reality television.

What are you on about??? I think you've misheard what he said in the video,

reading your transcript i must have,or conflated two dissparate points into one.
thank you.

i understand that mr harris was using islam as an example,i furthered it by supplying my own.
i shall attempt to clarify my point:
i have no problem with mr harris's premise,in fact i tend to agree with him.
here is my crux..if you will.
over-generalizations.
in my opinion his premise would have had FAR more veracity if he didnt indulge in such blanket generalizations.so while i would not wish for examples from each religion i would like his examples to be more precise.
example:what mr harris has issue with,as do i for that matter,is "fundamentalism" and the misuse of it's supposed authority.
the palestinian suicide bomber does not run into an isreali cafe ad kill dozens of people because the qur'an tells him to.he does this out of desperation against oppression of a military occupier and as a last resort.it is the RELIGION and the leaders of that religion that use dogma and doctrine to make such an act acceptible,even praiseworthy.
another example:
a devout christian who is pro-life,agressively anti-abortion,assasinates the abortion clinics doctor.this to any sane person is hypocrisy absolute,but this mans religious leaders have twisted scripture and doctrine to somehow make murder ok,all to serve an agenda.
the REAL fight is with fundamentalism,not religion.
the real fight is with those who,for their own advancement,would pervert another human being by amplifying their faith into a murderous fervor.
which mr harris speaks about,and i agree.
the only point i was making is lets point the finger at the real culprits,not those who follow peacefully in faith and in love.to make such blanket statements discounts rich histories,contributions to cultures and the humanities.a total population which counts in the millions.and in the case of islam...billions.

this was the only point i was attempting to make.i stated i agreed with mr harris,just not with his execution.i am not an atheist but neither am i a fundamentalist.i actually dont follow any religion at all..i just teach it.
i do hope i did a better job in conveying my point.
till next time...peace.